


So Long & Goodbye

by RandomestFandoms



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Big Sibling Luther Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Good Sibling Luther Hargreeves, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Luther Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Not Klaus Hargreeves Friendly, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Drug Addiction, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Protective Luther Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25319137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomestFandoms/pseuds/RandomestFandoms
Summary: On the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth.  This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began.  Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.  He got eight.Number 7 — The Soul — Helena Hargreeves was one of them.  Cursed with the ability to absorb emotions, and without the ability to filter them out, living in the mansion was a constant nightmare.  So, sixteen and traumatized by the loss of her second brother, Helena followed Klaus out of the mansion and out of their siblings' lives.  The next several years of her life passed in a blur of drugs and drinking, until an overdose landed Helena in rehab.  Thirty days later, and sober for the first time in years, Helena promised herself that she would keep it that way, and two years later she finally left Klaus.  With help from Diego, she got her life together, got a job, and started her life over without Klaus or her siblings.  And she was fine, she was good, until Diego showed up one night, begging her to go home with him for their father's funeral.
Relationships: (past), Allison Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s), Ben Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s), Diego Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s), Klaus Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s), Luther Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s), Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Original Female Character(s), Vanya Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	So Long & Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own TUA or anything other than Helena and my changes to the canon plot
> 
> Warnings: This fic will explore addiction (namely drugs and alcohol) extensively. It will talk about sensitive subjects such as suicide, abortions, self-harm, abuse, and the like. This will not be a particularly Klaus friendly fic and will not shy away from the damage that his addiction causes his siblings. He is not an irredeemable villain by any means, but he will be held accountable for his actions and the harm that he causes.

Helena sighed, running her hand through her hair for what felt like the millionth time. She wasn’t supposed to have downtime in her field; that was one of the reasons she liked it so much. People died every day, funeral homes were always busy, Helena wouldn’t have time to think about… well, about anything.

But apparently the universe had missed the memo, and somehow she had found herself with nothing to do except file paperwork that she could do in her sleep, which left time for her mind to wander.

She flipped over to the next page that needed to be filled out, uncapping her pen and getting to work. Although she had only become funeral director a year earlier — inheriting the home from the lovely elderly woman who had taken a liking to her from her very first day — she had been helping with paperwork for most of her five years at the job, and it had long since become an effortless task for her.

As it always did in her limited downtime, Helena’s mind soon wandered back to Klaus. Try as she might, she could never stop herself from wondering about him. Did he miss her? Had he ever read the letter she wrote when she finally left him? Did he ever ask Diego, or any of their other siblings, about her? Did he miss her? Was he angry? Had he even noticed that she was gone? 

But she forced herself to push those thoughts away. It had been five years since she had seen him. While she might never be able to stop thinking about him, she knew that she was better off without him in her life. As much as she hated him, she could never lie to herself and say that she didn’t still miss him — but she was always quick to remind herself of everything that had been horrible and miserable about that time in her life, and to shut down the thoughts as fast as she could.

Just as soon as she pushed Klaus from her mind, thoughts of Diego replaced them. She often wondered about him too, her favourite brother and the only one she’d seen since she was sixteen. He had respected her need for space; ever since she moved out of his apartment he hadn’t attempted to contact her, and as much as she always missed him, she appreciated it. She wasn’t ready to face him again, to face anyone from her past.

She missed Luther too, and sometimes she even missed Allison. She wasn’t sure if she would ever miss Vanya, not after what she’d written in that godforsaken book of hers, but she couldn’t help but miss what could have been; the relationship they could have maybe had if Reginald hadn’t ruined them all from such a young age. She always missed Ben and Five, of course, but they were easier to miss. She could miss them and she could mourn them, but she would never have to fight the urge to just pick up a phone and call them as she did with her surviving siblings.

She looked down at her papers, noticing for the first time that the pen had leaked onto her hand. A low curse escaped her as she grabbed a handful of tissues, wrapping up the pen and tossing it out. She straightened her papers as best as she could with one hand before heading to the bathroom to scrub at her hand until the ink began to fade.

And if the water was a bit too hot, if she scrubbed just a bit too hard, well, that was between her and the mirror. By the time the ink left her skin, her hand was a bright, painful red, and Helena switched to cold water to try to calm the burning ache. Finally, she ran both of her hands back under the now ice-cold water, patting them dry on her sweater and pressing them to her cheeks. 

It was a trick that she had picked up during her rehab stint; the cold pulling her out of her own head without the mess of splashing water everywhere. She met her eyes in the mirror, hazel as ever but dull and bloodshot, revealing the exhaustion she tried so hard to hide from the world. Half of her dark blonde hair had fallen out of its braid, and she untied it quickly, not bothering to redo it. She was the only person in the home for the day, and the walk home was only five minutes; no one would see her.

With one last press of cold hands to her cheeks, she left the bathroom. She was halfway back to her office before she changed her mind, heading towards the kitchenette instead. As she filled a cup with water, she realized that the TV in the lobby was still playing; evidently she forgot to turn the news off after taking her lunch break seven hours earlier. 

She told herself that she would turn it off on her way back to her office, taking a sip of her water as the news fanfare played. She half-listened as they recapped the news of the day, more focused on her grocery list than whatever tragedies the world would have moved on from by the time she woke up the next morning.

_ “Just one hour ago,”  _ she heard, _ “police reported the death of the most eccentric and reclusive billionaire _ — _ ” _

Whatever they said after that was lost to her, drowned out by the loud crash as her glass hit the linoleum floor, shattering into a million pieces. Dad — Reginald — was dead. He was  _ dead _ .  _ He _ was dead. Reginald Hargreeves was dead.

After five years of working in a funeral home, Helena had believed herself to be unphased by sudden loss. Death was a part of life and all that, it just happened, no rhyme or reason necessary.

But this wasn’t just another death, this was the man who raised her. This was the man who damaged her more than anyone else in her life ever had. He had always seemed larger than life, completely untouchable, and he was  _ dead _ . She wanted to be happy about it. She had always expected to be happy when – if – he ever actually died, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t… anything, really. She was numb. 

But Reginald was dead, and her floor was covered in shattered shards of glass, and only one of those actually impacted her. She could only do what she could do, she remembered her counsellors telling her, and it wasn’t healthy to worry herself to death over things that she couldn’t do anything about.

So she took a deep breath and pulled her hair into a messy bun. Pushing her shoulders back, she stepped carefully over the glass to grab herself a broom and dustpan. And, right, she still had to turn off the TV. She should do that first, she decided; she could look up the news when she got home.

She turned on her heel, making her way towards the lobby instead of the storage closet. But as she got closer, she noticed what looked like a man standing in the shadows. She grabbed the heavy vase from a nearby table, just in case, before calling out.

“We’re closed for the night.”

The man shifted from where he had been leaning against the wall, standing tall and imposing as he moved towards her, and Helena tightened her grip on the vase.

But before she could bring it down on him, he stepped out of the shadows, and Helena froze.

“Diego?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I didn’t intend for this fic to happen so soon but I got inspired for a couple of lines and stopped to write them down, and by the time I stopped writing, the prologue was done! I’m not sure when the next update will be, my current priorities are Somewhere Only We Know and Hear No Evil, but we’ll see where my muse wanders! I’m very excited about Helena, and I hope you guys love her as much as I do!


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